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Convicted murderer calls for inquest

Tasmania's chief magistrate has been asked to conduct an inquest into the death of a physicist whose former partner is serving a 23-year sentence for his murder.

Radiation physicist Bob Chappell, 65, was last seen alive on his yacht Four Winds on January 26, 2009.

His partner, Sue Neill-Fraser, was convicted of his murder in October 2010 but has steadfastly maintained her innocence.

Mr Chappell's body was never found.

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The sabotaged yacht was partially submerged but still on its mooring at Sandy Bay the day after he disappeared.

Ms Neill-Fraser's solicitor Barbara Etter lodged the request for the inquest on the four-year anniversary of Mr Chappell's disappearance.

She said there had never been a completed formal inquest into his death.

"Ms Neill-Fraser's conviction was based entirely on a circumstantial case, with no body, no weapon, no forensic evidence linking her to the crime scene, no plausible motive, no admissions or confessions and no eyewitnesses to the actual crime," Mrs Etter said in a statement on Saturday.

Neill-Fraser's daughter Sarah Bowles has likened her mother's case to that of Lindy Chamberlain and the death of her baby Azaria at Uluru in 1980.

"There is a palpable and continuing sense of unease and disquiet in the community about the case and the soundness of our mother's conviction," Mrs Bowles said.

"There are serious reservations regarding the thoroughness of the police investigation into Bob's disappearance and death and it is in the public interest and in the interests of justice, to conduct a fair and impartial inquest.

"We see this as very similar to Lindy Chamberlain's situation, where a person has been convicted in a dubious circumstantial case."

Mrs Bowles was in primary school when Mr Chappell moved in with her family.

She said she and her sister Emma respected and admired him as a father figure and are profoundly distressed that they do not know what happened to him.

Tasmania's Supreme Court dismissed an appeal against the murder conviction in March last year.